As a long-time advocate for refugees, I discovered early on a pattern of error and delay by the federal government in assessing refugee claims.

Now, the policies of mandatory detention and offshore warehousing are no longer the gravest threat to which refugees are subjected. The increasing numbers of deaths at sea are an even greater evil.

But claims that "tough" asylum seeker policies are motivated by the goal of preventing deaths at sea falter on the overwhelming fact that they have consistently failed to do so. There is a better approach.